


The Room at the End of the Hall

by Shadowbeast123



Category: The Loud House (Cartoon)
Genre: No Such Luck
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-05
Updated: 2017-10-08
Packaged: 2019-01-09 06:10:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12270504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowbeast123/pseuds/Shadowbeast123
Summary: Lynn Jr. hated passing by the room at the end of the hall. Lincoln's old room, that still brought back so many painful memories of what happened.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing but my OCs.

It was a cold fall day in Royal Woods. The soft breeze blowing the dying leaves across the sidewalk in a whirlwind before dispensing them in the streets, or on someone else's yard. But for Lynn Loud, the cold fall air, beautiful changing leaves, and soft winds just looked more dreary to her than in years past. The season she once loved because of all the sports she could play at school, was now one of her least favorites. Even the idea of all her sports didn't seem to cheer her up.

"Lynn," her teacher said, holding the phone in his hand. "Your parents are here to pick you up."

Getting up from her desk without a word, Lynn walked out of the classroom, and into the hallway to get her stuff out of her locker. Half expecting to see her older sister Luan doing the same. But then she remembered it was just her; because Lucy had yet to get into high school, and Luan graduated the year before. And she didn't see Lincoln anywhere, because if he were there, she wouldn't be needing to see a licensed therapist like the guidance counselor recommended.

_"It's for your own good, dear."_ Rita's voice rang in her ears as she slammed her locker door shut, and walked down the stairs to the first floor of the building. _"We want our old Lynn back."_

Walking out the front door of the school, Lynn saw the minivan parked at the curb, and climbed in. Not bothering to greet either one of her parents as Lynn Sr. drove the van to the therapist's office. Dropping her off out front since she was eighteen, and had to start doing things herself.

"We'll be back in a little while to pick you up," Rita said. "Please try to talk to the doctor. Okay?"

Letting out an annoyed 'tsk', Lynn climbed out of the van and went into the therapist's office. Walking up to the reception desk, and waiting for the lady sitting behind it to look at her.

"Name?" the woman asked, not even bothering to look up at Lynn as she pushed her red rimmed glasses further up the bridge of her wrinkled nose. Her silvery grey hair pulled up into a tight bun, slicked back with tons of hair gel. And her face holding a stone cold expression.

"Uh...Lynn Loud II," she said. "I'm here to speak with Dr. Wilson."

"Take a seat," she said, pointing to the chairs that were lined up alongside the wall. "The doctor will be with you in a moment."

Walking over to the chairs, Lynn sat down, and waited for the better part of an hour before the doctor; an African American man with short cropped hair, and brown eyes wearing a powder blue collared shirt and tan pants with brown shoes; came walking out of his office.

"Lynn Loud?" he called.

"Right here," she said, getting up from her chair and following him into his office: a small, peaceful looking room with grey walls, and a matching carpet. Blinds, and a black leather couch sitting directly across from his desk.

"Please, sit down," he said, coaxing her to sit down on the couch while he sat down at his desk. "Tell me about yourself, I heard from my receptionist that you have nine other sisters."

"Yeah," she said. "Four older ones, and five younger ones. My youngest sister, Lily, just started kindergarten."

"That's great," he said. "But what about your brother, Lincoln? I noticed you didn't bring him up when I mentioned your sisters."

Great, the one thing she didn't want to discuss, and the doctor caught on to what she was doing; trying to change the subject from her brother to her sisters, in hopes of not having to talk about Lincoln.

"Lincoln..." she hesitated. "Lincoln passed away a few years ago. My family doesn't really talk about him a lot. Mainly because Lily doesn't know who we're talking about, she was a baby when he passed."

"And I can see that his death has affected you as well," Dr. Wilson said. "Were you close with him?"

"About as close as a competitive sister, and dorky brother could get," she said. "We had our blows, but we still loved each other at the end of the day."

"What about the rest of your family?" Dr. Wilson asked. "Were they close with him at all?"

"Not at the end," she said. "But his death completely destroyed my parents. He was the only boy in a house of girls aside from my dad, and after he died, I swear I could have heard them threaten each other with divorce a few times."

"Why don't you tell me what happened to him," he said. "That is what you're here for? Is it not?"

"It was stupid," she said, looking down at her lap. "I lost a game that he attended, and I said he was bad luck after that; I convinced everyone that he was bad luck, and he ended up going along with it. Because with ten sisters constantly walking in on him, he just wanted some alone time. But things got so bad, we threw him out of the house. And when he tried to convince us that he wasn't bad luck, we told him to leave because we were going to my team's playoffs, and we didn't want him there. But it didn't matter anyway..."


	2. Five Years Earlier

"I can't believe this!" Lynn shouted as she threw her baseball gear into her bag in anger. "We lost. We made it so far, and we lost!"

"Lynn, honey. You're over reacting," Rita said, wrapping a consoling arm around her daughter's shoulders. "Tell you what. Why don't we all go out for victory ice cream? You may have lost, but you're still our winner."

"Thanks mom. But ice cream is the last thing on my mind right now," she said.

"Poop poo," Lily said, making Lori give her to Lynn Sr. to change her diaper.

"We're getting ice cream," Lola said. "I want some."

"I don't want any," Lynn Jr. said.

"It's fine if you don't, but we should probably take some home for Lincoln," Lori said. "It's hot out."

"Fine," she said, rolling her eyes. "But I call shotgun."

"Not if I call it first," Luna called, chasing after her sister.

"Um...honey," Lynn Sr. said, holding Lily away from him with a still full diaper, the clean one attached to his head.

"Get in the van dear," she sighed, taking Lily from him to change her diaper.

Walking out to the parking lot with the rest of the girls, Lynn Sr. caught up with Lynn Jr. and Luna before seeing that the minivan was gone.

"Where's the van?" he asked, walking over to where the van previously was. "It was right here!"

"Uh...dad," Lisa said, pointing to the sign behind her dad that read "No Parking! Tow Away Zone", in big letters.

"Oh, well, that's just lovely," Lynn Sr. said. "Looks like we'll be making a trip to the impound lot."

"You may want to take the diaper off your head too dad," Lori said, taking Lily's other diaper off of her dad's head, and giving it to Lisa. "Here, you can use this to power your lab or something."

"Thanks," Lisa said with her usual lisp; putting the unused diaper into her backpack.

"Okay, that's all finished," Rita said. "Now to-What happened to the van?"

"Dad parked it in a tow away zone," Luan said, not bothering to make a pun about the situation.

"Don't worry dear, I've got it," Lynn Sr. said with confidence.

"Good, then we'll meet you at the ice cream shop then," Lana said, already walking away from her family. "You guys coming or what?"

"Sorry dear," Rita said, following after her tomboy daughter along with nine more of the Loud girls while both Lynns sighed, and walked in the opposite direction to the impound lot to get the van. Which proved to be difficult, because the woman there refused to let Lynn Sr. take it without a valid license. Because his was expired.

"Surely we can come to an agreement," he said, showing her a fifty dollar bill.

"I won't be bribed, and you need to renew your license," the woman said to him before shutting the blinds to her booth.

"Now what?" Lynn asked.

"What we Louds always do sweetheart," he said before he jumped over the chain link fence that was blocking them from their vehicle. Only to be chased by a dog, and leaving Lynn Jr. to do the smarter decision, and call Rita; who begrudgingly picked them up because she had to leave the other nine sisters at the ice cream shop alone while she showed the woman at the lot her license, and got the van.

"Dad!" Lynn called, opening the sliding door just in time for Lynn Sr. to jump in, and close it on the dog. Which slammed into the side of the van before whimpering and walking away.

"See, I told you I had it," Lynn Sr. said with a lot of pride, making Rita roll her eyes, and take him to the DMV to get his license renewed. But even that didn't go according to plan, because the DMV refused to have any association with the Loud family thanks to Leni causing one too many accidents while trying to get her license.

"Well, at least we got the van back," Rita said as she drove up to the ice cream shop. Only to see the owner tossing out the last of her ten daughters because they almost destroyed the store. Leaving her to sigh, and hit her head off the steering wheel before leaning out the window. "Get in the van girls. We'll buy ice cream at the supermarket."

"Way to go Lana," Lori said.

"Me? Lola was the one who tried to climb over the counter to get to the cookie dough ice cream," Lana said.

"Well, you certainly didn't help by putting Lily on the counter and joining in," Lola said, sparking an argument between the older sisters, minus Lynn Jr. who was still in the van.

"Guys!" she yelled out the window, the anger and bitterness from her loss at the game showing clearly in her voice, and making all her sisters go silent; even her parents were a bit scared. "Get in so we can go home!"

* * *

**~Later that evening~**

"Lynn, I know you're still upset about losing the game. But you have to understand that winning isn't everything," Rita said as she folded the laundry. The bright sunny day having turned into a dreary, rainy night where the rain would streak down the glass of the small window in the basement. "There are other sports you participate in. One little game is not the end of the world."

"That's easy for you to say," Lynn said. "You're used to losing."

"And I'm used to winning too," Rita said, setting the hamper down next to the dryer, and turning to look at her daughter. "But you're also thirteen. Stop taking everything in sports so seriously, and just have fun once in a while."

"What's so fun about sports when you don't win?" she asked, as Rita headed for the stairs.

"Alright then, if you're going to be like that. Then you can let your brother back in, and lock up for the night," she said.

"Fine," she said, rolling her eyes, and going upstairs after her mother to let Lincoln back in. Opening the back door of the house, and calling out Lincoln's name a few times. But there was no answer. And she figured he must have went to Clyde's since he wouldn't want to stay outside for another night, so she just shrugged, and shut the door. Leaving it unlocked as she locked the front of the house, just in case Lincoln decided to come back in the middle of the night; and went upstairs to her and Lucy's room to go to bed. Lucy already asleep in her bed while she got changed into her pajamas, and just so happened to glance out her window to see a man standing on the sidewalk outside the house. His face shrouded in darkness while he looked up at the window at her, and she just shut the blinds and went to bed.

"Did you lock the back door?" Lucy asked, making her jump and fall out of her bed.

"Lucy," she said, standing up and glaring at her younger sister. "I thought you were asleep."

"Did you lock the back door?" the goth girl repeated, making Lynn face palm and sigh.

"No, I was just going to go do that," she said, leaving the room to go downstairs. But before she could reach the stairs, she tripped over her baseball bat that she had let Lana use a while ago, and picked it up. Taking it downstairs with her, and going into the kitchen to lock the back door. Only to see the man that was on the sidewalk coming in through the unlocked door. And rather than attack this man with her baseball bat, Lynn stood there, frozen with fear as the man spotted her, and grinned; the pale moonlight coming in from outside, and illuminating his perfectly white teeth, just his teeth, as Lynn backed away slowly.

"You should have locked the door little girl," he said in one of the most disturbing tones Lynn had heard in her life. The baseball bat slipping out of her fingers, and landing on the tile floor with a clatter as she tried to keep her heart from breaking out of her chest. The dog, Charles, growling under his breath, and baring his teeth to the intruder before he ran at him, and tried to bite his leg. And it wasn't until she heard a loud bang, a yelp, and a loud thud that she knew the man had a gun, and Charles got hurt.

Hearing Cliff attack this man, Lynn snapped out of her fear induce haze, grabbed her bat, and yelled at Cliff to get down before she hit the man over the head with it so hard, wooden sports instrument broke into two halves as the man let out a pained yell, and ran away from the house.

"Yeah, you better run!" she shouted after him, holding the broken bat in her hands.

Turning to see if Charles was okay, she saw Cliff licking his paw, stained with the man's blood from when he attacked him, and Charles was holding up an injured paw, but otherwise completely unharmed.

"You okay boy?" she asked, petting Charles on the head, and letting him lick her face. "Good dog."

Shutting the back door of the house, Lynn made sure to lock it this time, and went to see if anyone had heard the chaos. Her bare foot touching something wet, and warm before she looked down and saw that it was blood. Her eyes traveling to the growing puddle of the crimson liquid, and landing on a body wearing orange pajamas, and had white hair.

Oh no.

"Lincoln?" she asked, rolling her only brother onto his back, and wrapping her arms around him. "Lincoln?"

Hearing Charles start to whine, Lynn gulped, and felt her entire body go numb. Not realizing she had started screaming until Lori and Luna came downstairs and got her away from Lincoln. Lori holding her in her arms while Luna held their only brother in her arms, and cried. Barely hearing Charles' barking until Lana came downstairs, and immediately called 911. But despite having watched her brother use himself as a shield for the family dog, just so Lana wouldn't be upset, and screaming so loudly at the top of her lungs that her throat and chest were starting to hurt; Lynn didn't cry. Her eyes were dry the entire time while everyone else came downstairs and saw what had happened. Even Lucy, who hid away her emotions so well, shed a single tear while Lynn just screamed.


	3. Chapter 3

"That sounds like a traumatizing experience," Dr. Wilson said, giving Lynn a box of tissues so she could wipe away a tear from her eye.

"It was," she said, grabbing a tissue from the box, and wiping away the tear. Just the single tear, almost like Lucy when she cried; because after five years, she learned to hide her emotions almost as well as her gothic sister. "And as you could guess, it's kind of hard to get over something like that."

"I can imagine," he said before someone practically banged on the door, causing him to look at the clock as the receptionist took whoever it was that pounded on the door away. "And I have kept you much later than expected. We'll meet again next week."

"Okay," she said, getting up from the couch, and leaving the office as quickly as she had come in. The cold air from earlier that afternoon having dipped well into the thirties at this point, and the late evening sky a mix of orange and pink from the sunset, with grey clouds floating within the colors.

Pulling her jacket closer to her body, she reached into her pocket to get her phone out so she could call her parents. But then she realized she had left it in the van, so she decided to walk back since she could use the exercise, and get her mind off of things for a bit.

Zipping up her jacket, Lynn took a deep breath in, the cold air stinging her lungs as she did so, and breathed back out; her breath coming out in a plume of fog before she took off running down the street. The sound of her sneakers hitting the concrete echoing in her ears, and soon fading away into nothing; the streets, and the sidewalks turning into the track field by her school, and the cars turning into a roaring crowd. But when she turned to the stands, she didn't see her parents, or her sisters; she just saw Lincoln there, looking down at her with a blank look on his face, still eleven years old, and still having blood on his shirt like he had the night that he died.

Feeling something grab her arm tightly, she heard the sound of cars, and was suddenly brought back to the street outside of the printing shop; a man on the sidewalk having grabbed her arm to keep her from getting hit by a car because the light at the crosswalk was showing a red hand. But Lynn didn't pay any attention to the stinging sensation in her arm, since the man had grabbed her quite tightly; she could just hear her heart beating in her ears, and feel the cold autumn air as it burned her lungs. A cold and clammy sweat running down her face as she tried to slow her heart rate down, and crossed the street when it was safe to do so. Walking past the retail store where Leni worked, and seeing her sister dressing up a mannequin in the window. But she didn't bother dropping in to say 'Hi' to her, because it was getting close to the store's closing time, and she had get back to the house to watch the younger Louds because Rita and Lynn Sr. had to work late.

"Mom, I'm home," she called as she walked into her house. "And I left my phone in the backseat of the van again."

"Mom and dad went to work," Lucy said as she and Lana scooped out the pumpkin guts out of one of her soon to be jack-o-lanterns. Her vampire statue head, Edwin, sitting on the table with plastic over him because of what happened last year when Lola put the pumpkin guts on his head after Lucy got her mad.

"Where's the other three?" she asked.

"Luan took them out to go costume shopping," Lana said.

"Well, why don't I get dinner started then," she said, heading to the kitchen.

"Mom left us with enough money for pizza," Lucy said, moving her black hair out of the way of her face.

"Oh," Lynn said, putting her backpack on the floor next to the doorway. "Well I'll be in my room then if you need me. Call me when the pizza's here."

"Okay," Lana said, cutting the top off of another pumpkin as Lucy cut out a design into the previous one.

Going upstairs to her and Lucy's room, the two of them still sharing a bedroom because Lana had moved into Lori and Leni's after the two of them moved out, and Luan was not going to give hers up until she moved out as well, and when she did it was going to go to Lisa so Lily would have her own space; Lynn looked over at the end of the hallway where Lincoln's room used to be. And she hated passing by that door every day when she came and went, it would just bring back too many memories of her only brother who died trying to save the family dog. She could still remember whose room it was, and remember all the times she and her other sisters would go in there when Lincoln had a nightmare, or if something was wrong; she could still remember moving in with him temporarily until he acted like Lucy just to scare her away. And she still knew the room was there, even though for the last five years, the doorknob had been removed, and the door had been boarded up and covered over with wall paper. Making the doorway seem as if it was just part of the wall, and effectively hiding the room from the rest of the house. But she could still remember the yellow 'CAUTION' tape in front of the door, and the chains, and the wooden boards from when they threw him out of the house. All because she lost one game.

Feeling the tears well up in her eyes, Lynn dashed into her room, and slammed the door behind her. Keeping her back pressed against the slab of wood, as she slid down to the floor, and hugged her knees to her chest. Holding her breath until the urge to cry subsided, and Lucy came up to tell her the pizza had arrived. Just in time for Luan to come back with the other three Loud sisters.

"Oh, hey Lynn. I didn't know you were home," Luan said. "How were things at the therapist's office?"

"Alright I guess," she said, getting a slice of pizza out of the box on the dining room table. "We basically just talked and got to know a little more about each other."

"That's a start," Lisa said, the lisp she had had as a toddler having gone away. But she still spoke with an 'a matter of fact' tone in her voice.

"So, how was everyone's day today?" she asked, sitting down at the table. Listening to everyone's tales of what happened at school, or work as she ate her pizza; and it was during this time that she took in how much her family had grown up: Luan had gotten taller, and no longer had her braces; but her long brown hair was still pulled into its usual ponytail with a yellow hair tie, and she still made jokes that no one in her family laughed at because they were used to them by now. Lucy, much like Luan, had gotten a bit taller as well, and was slowly turning more into a woman; her black hair longer, and pulled into two braids, leaving her to look like Wednesday Adams, except for her bangs, which used to hang in front of both of her eyes until she just pushed them aside to cover her left eye. And honestly, Lynn had forgotten that Lucy's eyes were a silvery-grey color until she styled her bangs differently. And Lucy was also slowly starting to warm up to working with a team, although most of the time she still kept to herself.

Then there were the twins, who appeared to have changed quite a bit over the last five years. Lola wasn't upset over dirt getting on her pink clothes anymore, and learned to do things for herself a little bit more without having to persuade people to do her bidding. Even though Lynn still saw her as a brat on occasions. And Lana stopped playing in the mud as often as she used to; she still loved to do it, but after another girl at their school made a comment about how Lana had to act more her age, she had to fight the urge to do so. And Lana had also swapped out her pigtails from when she was six, for a ponytail much like hers and Luan's. Although she still liked to keep her red hat on a lot. And then there was Lisa, who hadn't really changed all that much over the last five years; yeah, her lisp went away, and she had gotten taller like the rest of her siblings. But she was still the same 'certified genius' that she always was.

And then there was Lily, who was now six years old, and still learning who she wanted to be. Her blonde hair pulled up into a pony tail, just like the rest of her sisters.

"Lynn!" Lola snapped, clapping her hands in her sister's ear, and bringing Lynn out of her thoughts.

"What were we talking about?" she asked, looking over at her sisters. Lily giving her a concerned face while Lana just got another slice of pizza out of the box.

"We were asking you how your day went," Luan said.

"OH!" she said, feeling her face heat up. "You know. Same old, same old. Hey is it getting late or something? Oh hey, I have homework to do, I'll see you later!"

Getting up from the table, Lynn grabbed another slice of pizza from the box, and went back to her and Lucy's room. Shutting the door behind her, and laying down on her bed, leaving the pizza on the desk that was between hers and Lucy's beds for later.


End file.
